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Kelley A Vinal Jun 2015
Liquids and lipids
North and south
Fatty and lean
Mouth-to-mouth
Resuscitation
Breathe
In and out
I think I need the Heimlich too
Compress my chest
Until I come to
Shelby LoAnn Dec 2012
My favorite quote would describe knowing even one life breathed easier because you have lived;
The meaning of life.

But when do I breathe easier?
How can CPR be performed if the life guard has no breathe?
Surely resuscitation would fail.

Yet, laughter originates from the larynx;
Our primary source of sound production.
Cords vibrating as air passes,
Laughter production.

Laugh often and much,
We are breathing.
Resuscitation!
Share the breathe,
Share laughter.

This is to be a success,
To resuscitate
leaving the world a better place
By whatever necessary method.
Ralph was right,
Just resuscitate when needed.

This coup
A new nation
Loyal dedication
Its classification

‘Species procreation’
Prevents us from facing
A human cessation
selective mutation
Gestation
Creation

It may help explaining
The reasons
Behaving
But not the foundation
Or actions
We’re basing


A simplification
is “continuation”
A checkbox
left vacant
Fulfillment
We’re chasing


We sweat
Eyes are gazing
A slight
palpitation
In need of hydration
Complete excitation
Without
hesitation
Intense stimulation
Deep urges
Heart racing

Driven
By sensations


Unbounded fixation
Pelvic
Undulations
Clothing
Perforations
Time no longer wasting

This capitulation
a Sanctification
****** gyrations
Hint of *******


The bedroom
Safe haven
For what
we are craving
Once out
and displaying

It all had been taken
Before
Feeling vacant
Freed imagination
A resuscitation
Indulged depravation

A rhythm
we’re setting
The giving and getting
Destroying
the bedding

All else I’m forgetting
Entwined
with each other
Like entangled netting
Both
on the same trip
In a unified heading


Now comes
the summation
A true
Revelation
Final
culmination
Smash all expectations
Volcanic
eruption

That lasts the duration
Loud gasp
We unlock

Filled with gratification
Written: July 8, 2018

All rights reserved.
Nat Lipstadt Aug 2013
What poem will you wear, when first we meet?

How will I recognition-you,
when you transverse my land?
Unknown our faces, our voices,
Only silent words electronic exchanged

Will lantern, it be: one, if by land, two, if by sea?
Will your ID badge, passport stamped and state,
Your chest bear a witness-sign?

The Arrivals Board flashes:
                    une poétesse est arrivé
                    eine Dichterin ist angekomme
                    a poetess has arrived
                    una poetisa ha llegado

Will there be a haiku in your hair,
A limerick exposed by raucous grin,
Or just ten words
allotted for your entire visit?

Desperate to locate
Urgent to sensate
Matters I take
Into two cupped hands,
On the shoeshine stand
Climb and recite-shout

Know me by my words,
Know me by the lilt lyrical
Of my American accented,
Canadian Tongue of my mother

Know me by my words,
Carved by time on my forehead,
Poetry is the blood of this fool's soul,
Hear me, find me, look upon me slamming

Poems are the thorns in my palms,
See me crucified, bleeding stanzas
Upon my shoeshine stand cross
Recitation resuscitation welcoming:

Benedicting Gloria, Gloria, Gloria

But if this should fail your attention to secure,
Or the TSA unappreciate my second coming,
Look for the crowd gathered round,
A man of moderate height, in a tall hat,
Beard scraggly, looking sorrowful
Reciting the Gettysburg Address

Either way,
Should be easy peasy to find me,
Grab your bag, off to short-term parking

This is how an Americana poet meets n' greets
Arriving poetess from a foreign land

Is there any other way?
------------------------------
Postscipt
Alas, five years on and I know in my heart
that you are not coming...
Aug 2013
Emme Apr 2013
They come to me for a kick start, a quick start, for a broken heart, or one that's stopped beating.
They come for spice, for ***, for connection, for healing.
They come to be seen, to be accepted with open arms, open mouth, open heart, and open *****.
They come to be renewed, rejuvenated, revived, resuscitated, reminded of what it is to love, and to be wanted.
And then they go.

Who heals the healer?
Jazzelle Monae Apr 2014
The way he mouths her name
His precise tone and articulation
sends her crazed and off the edge
a bliss with no resuscitation
Exploring every inch with callused touch and hesitation
Whispered moans in exclamations
His kiss. His body. Her adoration
They build their high in accumulation
Released in sync, their exhilaration
Silent physical communication
Coming down with slow deceleration
They meet eyes and mouths in gratification
to slowly fall in reveries
from their affair and liberation
© 2014 by Jazzelle Monae. All rights reserved.
JP Goss Jan 2014
To exhale
Compresses the chest
And in its place
Some chilblains,
Disgust for its being,
An annihilation
A ferocious hunger for itself,
Like the ouroboros
In every breath
Tempted by a life
For the moment gone.
To inhale
Invites it back,
A dispassionate process, no less.
The life thus stolen away
Impotent to the next breath
That I must exhale.
On this breath there comes a fear
A longing or
The urge
To lift my hands to my throat
And keep the life in my lungs
To quit exhaling
And never feel that way again.
Someone Apr 2015
You always spoke too fast,
And then stopped yourself, apologizing
Mumbling now
You always danced much longer than everyone else at the parties
Did you ever think you'd make it out alive?
I wish the answer was yes
((Even though I knew better))
You always stayed in bed for far too long
And cried much too hard
And loved people who couldn't feel the same
It started to wear on you,
Funny what love can do
It fades
Or did it never exist?
Why am I here? You asked me
You asked me often
I answered the same each time
'You and the universe are the same, and we need you here'
Maybe it wasn't good enough,
Maybe it was my fault,
Maybe It was my fault
You're breathing faster now
I try to calm you down,
It never works,
It never works
I got angry,
Impatient
Maybe it was my fault-
Is my fault
I don't know how to write anymore
Your hands always guided mine,
Your hands don't exist anymore
You always played your music too loud,
You were only yourself while you were drowning your thoughts out with song
People would yell at you,
And I'd try to sing along
Maybe I didn't sing loud enough
I'll never forget the day you turned your music off,
Both literally and figuratively
An allegory,
Or is it irony?
I don't know anymore
I remember you laying in the wooden bed-
Box
Skin soft, artificially pink
I showed up to your wake, drunk
((Wasn't much of a surprise, was it?))
You'd always told me that you would be the first one to go
Sadly it was true,
Should've been me
I punish myself everyday for it-
Trust me
I showed up drunk
Funny how my veins were filled with the same poison that killed you
Maybe I subconsciously meant to do that
I showed up drunk
I jumped in and tried to resuscitate you,
They dragged me out and gave me this look
This disgusted, disappointed look
And I realized that's how people have been looking at you your entire life,
And I finally understood
They threw me out and I fell to my knees
I understood why you took the blade
Took the blade to your--
I saw you laying in that box,
And wondered where your soul was
I remember those nights,
I remember those late nights
Clutching each other in the cold
Wanting out of this town,
Of this world
I stayed
You relied so heavily on me and
I'm sorry,
I'm sorry I couldn't stop you from lifting the bottle to your lips,
The blade to your wrist,
The gun to your mouth,
I'm sorry I couldn't quiet your thoughts
Now I know how evil they were
I'm sorry I couldn't stop you from lifting the bottle to your lips,
The blade to your wrist,
I made a home in your veins
so when you cut them,
I died with you
I fell to my knees and finally understood
Joseph S C Pope Feb 2013
Air fresheners killin' me softly about
judgment moments--days bruised hearts sing about
within the reach of hell--and she told me about her allergies

Of course Polaroids stalk what we don't see--those kisses
and the homeless starving, and flowers, and ****, and books, those tears,
and when she broke the fever from food poisoning. I bet we'll remember that

--And the exposed arms around your waist,
lips on midday, heart up early, breakfast for two underneath
the only red umbrella
left after Gabriel's tune
we remixed
the night before.

Standing on the brink of the Lazarus water-mark
--And the man behind you, and the lack of others behind us.
Gehenna before us
wiping away the unforgivable.

--And they make us forget you were allergic
to the pollen of spring--the death-throes of day flies.
Nat Lipstadt Jun 2023
(and I cannot live
from with-out)

<>
a poem in appreciation to Rossella Di Paolo

<>

I, too:
          - am an embryonic work in progress,
well into my seventh decade, with no ending in sight


                                I too,    
live in the house of poetry, the address likely differs,
but suspect the innards of the houses differs little,
the decor,  quite similar

         - my house shrewdly requests a rethinking,
                                    noting, it lives my artifice,

with in & with out

Then, we are a We:
                                  
          - my cavities house her, She, Poetry is of Ruth (1) born,

          - Poetry, She, reminds me, ”whither thou goest, I will go”


This duality:
          - where the haunting of words providential,
             emanate, both inhabiting & inhibits my breathing
              She, a fearsome creature, a fearful-something,
for it tears me and shreds tears its demands be wrung
from with in to with out

She, Poetry:
          - leaves me gaping, hollow, fills me with
            depressurizing boreholes exposed to the elements  of
            externalities of an admixed atmospheres, that nature demands             be refilled, fresh in, stale out,
for which the artifice trick is knowing which is which

when Poetry’s  birthing:
          - chest pounds, heart-rate beats heavy metal,
            abdomen contracts, there then, no languid in my language,
            no help untangling the alpha-bet jumbling,
            product of the screams of pushing,
squeezing it forth

you’re hoping to quick-catch newly formed combinations,
for if you fail, a poem
noisily crashes to and through the floorboard cracks,
where poetry’s chaotic glinting etes
maliciously glimmer~winks at me
with a sarcastic thank you

“ah, too bad, another creation stillborn,
gone to rest, biting the nether dust,
without hope of resuscitation…”*

just another unfinished work in progress

periodically
a survivor clean caught, transcribed, edited to be finished,
amniotic fluids cleared,
poem resurrected
blessed with eternal life,
readied to be shared and delivered,
affirmed

and you say to no one and to everyone:

this poem will be our poem,
wither it goes, ascending, descending,
all live in the house of poets,
one house,
many apartments,
each poem a god,
and
my God will be our God,
your God, my God,
in the House of Poetry
https://hellopoetry.com/poem/4717212/leave-if-you-can-ii-by-rossella-di-paolo/

(1) And Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

——
Leave if You Can II


I live in the house of poetry.
I ascend her stairs slowly
and leap back down.
I sit in the chair of poetry,
sleep in her bed, eat from her plate.
Poetry has windows
through which mornings and afternoons
fall, and how well she suspends a teardrop
how well she blows until I tumble / With this
I mean to say that
one basket brings
both wounds and bandages.  
I love poetry so much that sometimes I think
I don’t love her / She looks at me,
inclines her head and keeps knitting
poetry.
As always, I’ll be the bigger person.
But how to say it / How to tell her
I want to leave / honestly I want to
fry my asparagus…
I see her coming near
with her bottle of oil
and crazed skillet.
I see her,
her little bundle of asparagus
slipping out her sleeve.
Ah her freshness / her chaotic glint
and the way she approaches with relentless meter.  
I surrender / I surrender always because I live
in the house of poetry / because I ascend
the stairs of poetry
and also because
I come back down.

    — Translated by Lisa Allen Ortiz & Sara Daniele Rivera
Nat Lipstadt Feb 2014
In the end, where is the courage?
~~~~~~

a festering poem~notion
that can not be kept down,
in the making, long,
in the scrivening, short

even the simplest life,
the most ordinary,
cannot ever avoid the question,
where is the courage?

this journey, near complete,
packages delivered, dust and mud,
a canvas of the well worn, conceded and deeded,
nearly done, in the corner almost all that's needed,
a scrawled illegible, encircled set of initials

but never mind that,
for that doesn't obviate, or explicate,
what is important, no matter where and when
you are GPS dotted on your particular travelogue,
the quest, the question that does not come or e'er go,
but permanent, like the dimple, given at birth,
where is the courage?

threescore and more and therefore puzzling,
what matters now this solution in need of resolution?
this easy to provide the clarification notification,
perhaps you are young and the future looming large,
courage in ample supply, for when and where
life requires resuscitation, even enunciation,
you easy answer, here, within,
below the surface, just underneath,
at the ready, in service, a call awaiting when asked,
where is the courage?

the sword of mine so oft drawn and bloodied,
my exploits, I unashamed, but yet new war cries recirculate
and they call out "give us the veterans,"
whose courage spoke of and tale recorded,
let them lead us once again to succor and success!

they cannot know or be told,
my chain mail armour, my heart's amour,
rusted and weakened, and battle memories
too well recalled give me not wells to draw upon,
but wells to be drowned in, fears of fear of it,
it cannot be done again, the supply all drawn down,
the well overused and dry, history revisionists
cannot bring back what once was just by asking,
where is the courage?

the temple in Jerusalem sacked and burnt,
but the Israelites returned and rebuilt,
in ages and days when miracles were a dime a dozen,
no one could not imagine exile permanent,
but it came and lasted but tho many,
ceased to believe, a hardy few knew the answer,
when the the quest, the question that does not come or go,
was flaunted both to and by the fearful, the tired~souled,
where is the courage?

here, within, but this time dig much deeper,
under grime and desultory historic rhyme, it be buried,
just sip and sup of it, but a taste will reignite hope hopefully,
of
what is only dormant, but never gone complete,
that is what they whisper, in my one good ear,
but I know better, tho eyes dimmed,
my heart replies, the inky dark answer
that I hate but recognize as truth,
when it inquires
where is the courage?*

what matters where,
when, when,
there is no choice,
you know what to choose,
choose the pretense in hopes
that the muscle memory will return,
and restore what was once yours,
and must be yours, yet again
and if you fail,
fail well
for that will be you at the last, and the
lasting medal of courage tendered
Nessun dorma, None shall sleep.
This I know all too well,
you cannot leave or retire from the struggle
We call life, and
Tho my chin upon my chest weary rests,
Nonetheless, it my fingers under yours,
Under you chin, raising it up,
For that is what I have left,
That is what I do.

Feb. 3, 2014
Arcassin B Oct 2014
AB:
Remembered when I was 6,
And didn't think my life would turn out this way,
Wasn't suppose to have one,
She didn't get that abortion anyway,
So I have to go through situations,
I'm not suppose to,
And every time reaching confirmation,
To people know , and talk to,
Nobody help,
But they stood on the side lines,
Fake friends and smiles,
Are limited , but please don't get out of line,

FNB:
Remembered when i was 6; didn't think my life would turn out this way.
Wasn't supposed to go through situations, but new lessons are learned each day.
Reaching confirmations, lines, fake friends, and half-hearted smiles.
Innocent kids become murderers, even pedophiles.
The good becomes limited, but please don't get out of line.
There's so much wrath and hatred, and we don't have a lot of time.
***collab***
Qadriah Oct 2013
Your words aren't as clear as they used to be
And I despise every tangible flower that grows
Inside my lungs
Because of those uncertainty

A basket of hopes sold
To the girl who weeps by the fountain
You have her dreams in return
Crushed to tiny pieces

I will leave you alone
In your sanctuary
With your lies as your fort
Fret not

My soul's dry
I will not avenge
Because to forgive is to resuscitate
(I promise)
josh Dec 2011
She's a dime everytime...
Making ******* rhyme on the grime...
Tell her how great she is if you so incline...
But don't forget she's mine...
Disrespect will get ripped from your spine...
With a smile on my face while I dine..
**** she's so fine...
Bring terror to the streets so divine...
Like a fine wine aging over time...
An acquired taste...
And quit while you're ahead...
******* with my girl will get you two to the chest and one in the head...
Clear...
Mouth to mouth resuscitation...
You might as well give self-mutilation...
It's a celebration...
Of your life affiliation...
Yeah they call me Jkizzle...
No i'm not the white version of Eminem...
Haters can go sit on the bench with the rest of them...
I don't give a **** what you say...
Bow down before I break ya legs...
I go hard for days...
No hesitation...
No room for strays...
Head held high...
Outer space...
So lets arase all the hate...
And go back to loving one another...
I can love you like a brother...
Or ******* over *******...
Sheeda Mar 2013
A kiss in the blue black dark
Inhibitions lost to drink
But slowly returning
Almost sober, but not quite
Forehead to forehead
Nose to nose
Chin to chin
Mouth to mouth
Resuscitation from this
Dream
Sparks fly between the two
But there are repercussions for that
Hands of another were held so tightly
Lips of another were made slightly wet
With a kiss unorthodox, taboo
Another's ******* pressed to his chest
While trying to make out another's eyes in the dark
A whispered goodnight
An event unregretted
A secret?
Lips that burned for more
But shushed
And feelings unrestrained.
Rhianecdote Feb 2015
Playing a solo game of frustration, I embrace cowardice as I constantly back away from confrontation, rage simmering in the alienation, mars attacks, scars attach and no manipulation can stop their  compression of my circulation,
Heart stops and my brains on a feeding frenzy from starvation, out of blood so I'm out for blood, count on assassination no resuscitation
Try to reassess the situtuation but the deliberate deliberation just seems like procrastination, open to stipulation , stitch it up and look at my creation, a Frank-enstein abomination and there's no time for negotiation 
I'm on trial and the tribulation
Leaves me heading to an unknown destination...

**A Destination Unknown
Though this Hate was Home grown
Undercover rapper aspirations. Cause one would love to spit bars on the Mic like Tyson especially when one is ****** the *******! But where does all this pent up anger lead... Hopefully a successful rapping career!
Ailene Lee Aug 2018
I will always be this passionate about people, of sunlight, of a warm cup of coffee, the little things that often go unnoticed. the overwhelm of life will always come for me, the overwhelm of feeling will always stop me dead in my tracks.
grief is a natural disaster, joy belongs on cloud nine, anger takes form in violent hysteria, love feels like skydiving with a faulty parachute. it never mattered to me if the glass was half empty or half full, all I could ever take into account was a glass worth of emotions that never stopped spilling over.
I swing between the pendulum of it being too empty, and often too full. my heart sets off fireworks, I’m accustomed to have to feel in order to feel alive. so it I suppose it makes sense if having nothing happening out of an adamant routine would so easily convince me why I am having such a hard time staying alive.
that’s it, when you feel like I feel — you need emotion to remind yourself why you’re a human being. I was stuck in such a remote and isolated void that I forgot what being alive felt like.
SG Holter Mar 2017
We met as two broken vases
Holding the brittle remains of
Roses never received.
Bruised and scarred, one from
Thinking love is pain, one
From finally seeing that it
Isn't.

Colliding drunk drivers on an
Empty Lover's Lane, both
Alternating between the roles of
Victim and rescue worker,
Mouth-to-mouth and chest
Compressions;
Caresses.

Blue eyes blue lights,
The taste of the blood of the other
As comforting a comfort as any to
Any parched vampire.
We leave the scene as we have
Many: Covered in type O negative  
And hope.
Helen Murray Jan 2014
You made me laugh – when I was crying.
You made me strong – when I was weak.
You gave me wisdom – for my foolishness.
You gave me vision – when I was bleak.

You asked me one thing – that I would trust You.
You showed me something I’d never known –
Yet it was something my heart was aching for –
Your overpowering love and gentleness were shown.

I knew that I would always trust You.
I knew that You would walk with me.
Whatever life might throw down my way
Your Truth would always keep me free.

Life’s bitter highway has thrown me boulders,
Resuscitation comes alone from You –
And with it light, the shadows all surpassing.
This life is known by far too few.

So many lies twine round the heartstrings.
So many demons tranquilise the soul.
So many shutters cancel out the vision
Of the One and only Christ who makes men whole.

A man must choose his fate. His future
Depends entirely on his choices now.
Believe the lies and blindly follow fortune’s way,
Or find the truth and wear a winner’s gown.

Could you be brave enough to look for truth?
Could you be one who’s willing to believe?
Could you then trust the Man who went before us all
Through death to Life, our vision to retrieve.

Could you dance when the chips are down?
Could you be one unstoppable at last,
Whose back cannot be broken by vicissitudes of life.
Could you be one with Him?  It’s no great ask.

Could you tell Him “I’m not quite all I thought I was,”
Could you face facts with vision’s morning dew,
And find the blood of Jesus quite up to the task
Of full resuscitation.  You could be brand new!
Nat Lipstadt Jun 2013
In the Poet's Nook: Perhaps I should write less

Surrounded by a movie set of waves,
A just stiff enough, warm-to the-wet-finger breeze,
Temperature just touches 80 Fahrenheit,
Our shirts wind-ripple, the sun rays tipple
Our minds into a clarity of euphoria dots of surreal stipple,  
One would never think to drink or smoke again.
Surround-sounded by waves rapping,
Pushed~pulled by the gusts, delivery messengers of
Air bearing, air aborning, of every flavored life's seedling needed,
We would freeze life as is, forever, unhesitatingly.

A cool woman from whom I sip, rip, and to her,
Tender my life, comes to kiss-visit me in the nookery,
Feeds me peaches, cherries, and a fruit as yet unnamed.
Called by some my muse, I call her my fuse,
For the disparities, the troubles I but hint at,
And all that is life-good under her roof,
Comes together here where there is only
Cerebral and sensual, for there is nothing else of import,
Even the not-good, tempered gently, and put aside.

You and I,
We know but small of each other,
Yet we reveal so much -
If I could summon you here right now,
All would be clarified,
No request denied,
Yes, every tear, every tear, would dry itself,
Promise.  From experience, promise.

Wish we could compose side by side.
My perfection would be made more perfect
By its sharing, especially with those
So hurting-pained, suffering, I cannot all absorb it,
No longer stand this influenza wave of affliction,
Especially when I.Am.Blessed.

Come here, where I can promise slow and steady healing.

How can I make you understand what I write,
Where,  here, I write, all comes so easy,
Every glance a poem formed,
Every phrase a title to a poem to be served,
Every conversation overheard, wind-lifted brought,
A seed, a germ, a word~worm hooked to the pole crook of
My finger saying,
See man, time to get more
Rod and reel, ink and paper,
Go, and catch us a few poems for dinner.


The snapper weakfish word colors are
Running past my-by the thousands,
We will need a woven basket to catch but a fraction,
Of what you see, more than more enough to share,
Only Happy Poems for all.

It is in this rhyming way, I view the world,
That is my freedom, my-present essence,
How the poems come, how thy flow,
Peaking, I cannot berate, rarely eat,
Sleep a thing of the past (as you be aware, beware)
There is poetry in simply everything.
                                                     ­     
A long time ago, I wrote a long poem that began like this:

Excited utterances, acerbic witticisms, utter stupidities,
elegant inanities, can and most assuredly will be used,
both evidentially, and eventually, about you
in the court of poetic justice,
as inspiration, original source material,
proofs of our collaboration with the enemy,
whom Pogo fathomed long ago is...Us

As I drink in my good fortune,
The enemy is clearly just me, overwhelmed,
Unable to choose, unable to distinguish,
Unable stop, out of control, I need perspective,
Both the scars and the successes, scar-e me

Perhaps I should write less,
Or take a mental rest,
Is not brevity what's in this year?*

But in this *not-half-but-all-the-way
house by the bay,
Where lying about, in the Poets Nook, is the souls cure,
There is inspiration ammunition galore,
Brevity is but a demoted D list celebrity.

I need you to be at ease,
So my happy days can be full completed,
Meantime the pen is grounded,
I should put-poetry-writing aside and just think,
Read~Rocking the writs those little babies you send to me,
For my mouth to mouth inhaltion and
Return to them, children, the elements of a
Nook's Recitation of Resuscitation.

June 2013
To better understand this poem, see: https://hellopoetry.com/poem/390340/time-to-get-serious-in-the-poets-nook and also,
https://hellopoetry.com/search/poems/?q=a+man+in+search+of+his+style..

early poems on HP when I knew how to write. As many of your know, the Poet's Nook is a real place;  three old and weathered Adirondack Chairs, overlooking the
bay, the beach, and serenity;
All invited to compose alongside, even the old grouchies who complain correctly, I wright too long(ly)
LovelyBones Oct 2014
Remembered when i was 6; didn't think my life would turn out this way.
Wasn't supposed to go through situations, but new lessons are learned each day.
Reaching confirmations, lines, fake friends, and half-hearted smiles.
Innocent kids become murderers, even pedophiles.
The good becomes limited, but please don't get out of line.
There's so much wrath and hatred, and we don't have a lot of time.
Colby Scott Apr 2016
Have you felt its bite?

The terrible

Horrendous

Ever-opening

Maw that
Threatens to
Devour all my

Certainty.

It gorges upon all that is
Bright.
Black breath flows
Over me
A
Blight
that saps my strength

My soul yearns to take flight!

Yet here i remain
Paralyzed by the
Gaze of this unrelenting
Beast,
Doubt.

Will there be
Restoration?
Can i hope for
Resuscitation?

Or is my yearning
Merely the
Death throes of
Passion

Burning

Burning

Burning

Out like a
Candle
Lit dinner?  

It shall not
Come from you,
Romance.

You rose-colored
Vagabond.
Food for the maidens
Dream.
Despoiler of my
self
esteem.

i require another
To sustain
Me.

i know it can
Be found.
One who can
Remove this yoke
From me.

Who can vanquish this doubt?

Who shall turn my discordant
notes
of Sin
Into a sinphony?

He is the
One

That will catch my boulder
As it threatens to crush
Me
At the bottom of this
Hill.

So come to me!

i haven’t the strength to yell.

If you can hear
Then
You are
Well acquainted with
My
Bones
Breaking.

i am not
Strong.

Of this i
know
For the wilting of the
Lily
Told me
so.
Shiloh Apr 2014
slowly coming back to me
stagnant come the melodies
never smoothing my desire
always searching for...
Joel M Frye Jan 2015
Life revolves; a door
which spins from my heart to yours,
soul to soul to soul.
Your words are the very tonic of life.  Thank you, my friends.
AM Snyder Feb 2016
No one ever taught me not to stick my hand in a fire, I just learned by common sense;
but here I am again, grasping for you and watching my hand blacken and burn.
Because every time you say that you don’t know what to say,
I want to call you a liar because you just spoke.  
But being speechless speaks louder than words and
the absence of sounds swallows me whole  
until your fire was all I saw and like a fool, I reached for it again.  
But as I did, in the darkness I couldn’t see that my paper heart
was starting to burn.

We all grew up too fast, pushing through pull ups and graduation robes as if they could be worn twice.
We learned that excuses and “I’m sorry”s could be said again,
but that didn’t undo the damage already done.
Now the angry redness of your ears matches the redness of my future and I can’t help but wonder how I could’ve messed this up so badly.
But then I remember that I have a PhD in impulsiveness, poor decision making, and panic attacks.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions,
so down I lay cobblestone after cobblestone until I reach the gates but I never enter.

Who needs hell when I have your fiery red hair and temperament
that develops into a burning rage that scorches my skin with silence, when I’d rather be slapped with sinful words that PG movies don’t allow. All I can say is that I tried, because that’s what we all do in this world; we try.  
Try our best, but fail anyways because success is for those who get lucky and this world is nothing but a game of chance with lottery tickets costing you more money than you will ever win, but we believe that there must be some essence of luck in our lives because we keep buying tickets.
She thought she was lucky.  She thought that in an oceanic timeline, surrounded by blue, that she had found a brown boat, brimmed with buoyancy and broken dreams that you shared.
She climbed into that boat, and side by side you sailed neither of you realizing that you were sinking.

That is the thing about the boats in which we sail, even when we assure ourselves that they will never fail.
In this world, we all have our own ships, but the trick is that these boats can only hold one passenger.
She had her own boat once.  She lost it, in maritime madness, one reason or another.  
When her boat was swallowed by the sea she started swimming, trying to keep moving. Sink or swim they say.
So as she swam, she spent all her energy and instead tried to tread and keeping her head above water was no longer a game that you played in summers spent at the shallow end of the pool.
It became a constant question of survival.
She must’ve been lucky, for your ship sailed by and
picked up the poor girl who then became a passenger of someone else’s vessel.
This boat was worn, and her captain had tried to patch the holes but as the two sailed, the ship began taking on water as they went.

When training to be a lifeguard, they teach you quite a few things.
Mouth to mouth resuscitation(which sadly is no longer actually mouth to mouth),  first aid, CPR, and how to pull a drowning victim from the water.
When people drown, our instincts kick in and we grab for  anything to keep ourselves above water and breathe.  
We don’t mean to hurt anyone else in the process but we just keep fighting for air.  
Sometimes the people push their rescuer under and even though we may try to hold them up, if we don’t breathe too we’ll drown!  
So what lifeguards are taught to do is if they are being pushed under
is to shove the victim off, swim away, and save ourselves.
Now some may say that sounds selfish and how can we do that when we’re supposed to be saving them, but we can only save them if we’re alive.  If we can breathe.

You told me dating me was like a breath of fresh air,
because when you were with her, you were held under for:
1, 2, 3, 4…10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 45, 83, 104, 255, 1013… 63,072,000 seconds - TWO YEARS.
So of course, I understood why you swam away.
Away from the girl who broke your boat because being drained of energy was something I used to do to others.  
I ****** the acid out of batteries and I walked on power lines, licked light bulbs, and suckled sockets because I too was once a drowning victim and but I hit the water was shocked by the electric energy that I had drained from him and it was hell.  
The hell that I had laid cobblestones too, the hell that one day I might see you in, because we’re all sinners here.  
We aren’t human if we don’t make mistakes, and ****’t I’ve made mine.

I fell from the ship and sank until I hit rock bottom, which was  somewhere right between a razor blade reef and pill popping plankton. It’s funny how solid rock bottom can feel beneath your feet, because we’ve been on our boats or in the water for so long;
but you can’t stay down there no matter how badly you want to
because your lungs are screaming for air so you push yourself up and struggle for the surface.
The Marianas Trench is the deepest point in the ocean, and I’m pretty sure that’s about where I landed.  
And I’m sure that if it wasn’t for a difference in timing, I would’ve seen her at the bottom too.
But that’s the split between me and her, because right now I’m back in my own boat and I’m breathing in fresh air but she’s gasping for a breath. She’s struggling to breathe but her lungs keep taking on water.

This doesn’t happen to just her and me, but there are hundreds of thousands of people out at sea.
Some decide to perform a self mutiny by mutilating their minds and jumping overboard and the truth is that not everyone makes it!
Some open their mouths underwater while screaming for help
but instead their shouts are choked out by the salty ocean that surrounds us all that we continuously mistake for our own tears.  
Some people are smarter. They wear life jackets, while the rest of us
use others as life rafts until we figure out how to rebuild our boats and I’m here to say that you can.
No, it’s not going to be easy. It’s never easy.  
Learning to swim wasn’t easy. When you first learned to swim you thought you would drown then, but you survived didn’t you?  
If Jack Sparrow sailed the sea, so can we.

So here I am, breathing in and I’m floating on,
trying to teach others that mending their ships is a pain but they have nothing to lose and so much more to gain.  
And there you are and if dating me is like breath of fresh air and you're fire, do I just continue to let you consume my oxygen until I choke on bitter words and stutter on sentences that I can’t spit out?
Sure my boat has holes in it and sometimes, the patches break;
but I have found that letting water in just isn’t for me so don’t plan on using wooden scraps of my boat to light your fire anytime soon because I know that even though this ocean seems vast and never-ending, we are all sailing somewhere.
Hopefully, we’ll get their soon.
neth jones Mar 2022
The great gaudy flage is screamin' blood in the streets
                                          loose yawn of a gob on him
                                              all bombast n' swagger
he makes a barrage of nuisance
     channels through the public
         and scatters a juggler's performance spot
                  lobs away his change hat
then, roughly over the cobbles  
                                        he hoicks a resuscitation doll
         and stamps down a posing boot
                                                 on the 'defeated form'

an unprepared scoop of tourists
a pause for silence and begins a rant
a great performance
of well harassed combustion :

"i smear to god all the phalluses
      [he roars, all saliva]
i smug to god
             a full jug of uglies
tug on       [makes the hand gesture for male *******]
i **** off the forger
would slug it in the mug
                          if it ever did form a tissue oath
took a plug at some drunk straggler
called the baffled *** 'god-father'
            and spate spume on his fallen anatomy
[with one hand he indicates the mannequin at his heel]
       amen ******* !"

he bows
a long quiet
some people clap awkwardly
two police officers appear and hook him by the elbows
(it has been this show before)
Doug Collins Dec 2011
A different kind of cold settled
in them as they poured through the door
into the bleak grandiosity of the lobby.

A group of grievers:
Her ashen husband and their two daughters, 12 and 20,
Her two sisters dressed in black fleece
and Her mother with freshly bruised knees.

The night was agonizingly short once they arrived.
Prayer and hope for rehabilitation
between questions about resuscitation.
Her mother clung to the cruel Almighty
While Her husband clenched his fists at the chaplain.

A Stroke of an instant induced a transformation of lives
as Hers ended beneath the blinding fluorescence.
Even the greatest moments, calmest actions, most peaceful energy, would be unable to tear it off once it sticks
it winds you up for everything and causes one to just pace instead
Eyes get dizzy from observation of another's and can assimilate the same hold
Tension continues to escalate and bottling it up only makes the explosion imminent
No one likes it
Some look to escape through things that actually increase it
An insanity I've dealt with and still resisting
Depravity of vice while the resuscitation of life simultaneously reacts from one thought and act of will
It's hell to deal with
I think the void between two lives would be more difficult than this
At least then you could be fascinated by the new journey
Than to continue the same and battle the duality of choosing a side
Or dealing with human ordeals such as quitting smoking or relationships
Decisions can create a hold on you, but when it's out of nowhere....
The confusion continues the hold
**FadedFate**
Nicole Rountree Mar 2016
I watched marriage as she gasped for air.
It was a pain that I could no longer bear.
Marriage had been so good to me.
To see her taking her last breath was slowly killing me.
I tried to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation
But my memories of what she had become made me fill will anger and devastation.
She tried to hold on and so did I
But there comes a time when you must let her die
I hated to see marriage go
Her heart beat began to go slow
Her chest no longer rose as she breathed her last breath
It was sad to see marriage go through this last test
But even in death new seeds can be sewn
New hope can be grown
But the true pain from the loss will never be known....
Until you watch the Death of a Marriage.

©Nikki the Pen
I dispelled arduous watches tick on laborious appareled macrocosms scatter spitting patter, teeming paved labyrinths searching for something to own orbiting the bench I sit on, envisaging celestial bodies slinging transonic ripples. Ether colliding into clouds masking infinite galaxies from a suffering and crawling universe destined for a hole in the wall, where the rats live; nibble, scratch, deconstruct, and reconstruct, cannibalize, ****, and die.
         Does silence exist amongst the deucedly hot and dense state that incrementally dilutes vociferous dissonance illuming dynamic hurricanes, merciful gases, and asteroidal moats guarding engraved anthropomorphic landscapes?
Probably not; fauna whisper, tear down, and settle, birth exigent infants and zealous appraisals, ***** towers and castles; consciousness capitulates, inundates prisons, cemeteries, and landfills. Silence, in precipitous day dreaming, auspiciously reverberating webs espying arpeggios tomb the suburbs as one navigates in and out of trepidation to avoid being caught like a gnat, a quiet ******* bug with no cigarettes to burn.
The impact flung me from the bench in the commons toward dusk disguising 16 acres with streetlights and homeless asking for squares on the roads to spurs and oaks, scattered acorns crepitating under my soles. Each  compressing sound pulling like gravity, transporting down roads with bouncing winds, subtle aglow, guides from defiant contours of Gods in the clouds, dandelions erupting side walks like tectonic plates seismically tear apart earth, the fog’s mist like ships floating into suns swimming like tadpoles; air undulates as I wave my hands against the wind, molding the space as clay.
This city is mine, I tumultuously grow with it, and I mercurially oscillate with it as a memory inevitably plays. The past as a dream, is mine. The abstract present is mine, and the infinite future is not, yet they are given away for possession.
Inept graffiti cartographically stain bricks providing a simpler search for portals made perfect for laying like a crescent moon near their opening edge, watching dawn lift dust and my eyelids, glaring off windows building and kissing the satellite towers on roofs, waking the mountains in the horizon, painting the sky, one could give a **** about the past, present, and future, the beginning is just as imminent as venturing any further.
Embryonic sun rays mixing fluids and this coffee I nabbed to wake the day, having it enlighten the conversations one has with oneself; consisting of bellicose thoughts filtered, taboos accompanying bleating people, ubiquitous t-shirts, satirical newspapers, and indecorous magazines perpetually feeding me preliminarily eldritch reconnaissance as they dress into strangers.
It could be time for another cup of coffee and cigarette? Or am I just floating off into enigma over the road becoming a sea?
Gypsies contort into seagulls, shingles moving like tsunamis smashing down on metropolitan brick cities, Atlantis generation XYZ resting in an underwater valley, mountains sew gardens on the ocean’s bottom, signs buried, and I’m simply lifting back off into space.
Complaints will suffocate; I’ll be out of town, however, I will miss those whom drowned.
Good riddance.
“Hello,” a soft resonation shaking the atmosphere.
Resuscitation; back to reality…
“Hello”, the voice repeated, “Are you going to be alright?”
“Pardon, what happened?” I slurred.
“You just fell several stories and your head is missing. This is astonishing how you can hear me, how I can hear you, are you in any pain?”
“Um, I apologize, but I’m not really certain of what you are saying. My head is missing?”
“Yup, it detached from your atlas, when you hit the asphalt, what is the last thing you remember?”
“Having my head…well sort of, I remember staring at people on a bench in the commons it was kind of turning my stomach, making my head feel heavy, so I got up and walked. Explains the headaches and visuals, Where am I?”
“You’re in my basement. I could hear your voice when I found you, even with your head, well, skull missing.”
“Why didn’t you call an ambulance?”
“I would have called an ambulance, but you told me not too, you wanted me to hear you, you kept insisting I hear your stories, so, I listened to your stories as I basically dragged you here. You would go in and out, talking then silent the next, and now you seem like you’re in at this moment; without a skull, your heads there.”
“Well…I can’t see you… or the basement… and I am not in any pain… How long has this been going on, why did you listen to my stories, and what did I say?”
“You know what you said.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m the only one who listened.”
Senor Negativo Aug 2012
Listen to the night ascend, and fade, as dawn approaches,
The trees weep tears of acceptance,
Brightly colored music is thrumming through the air.
A low and continuous chorus coinciding with the dawn of eternity.
A vibrant homicide of hopelessness, a resuscitation of elation.
We are together now.
Fear not the path into the light.
Today we will dance in the sunlit wilderness,
The radiant tongue of the sun covers us in slick moisture,
Our fluid bodies twirl, arms enfolding.
Embrace life like a maternity ward,
Full of limitless potential for love, chaos, violence and kindness.
As we release gamma waves, warping our world,
Shaping what we choose,
Embrace life like a maternity ward.
Negativity seeps out of us, and evaporates.
Our lives begin today.
Olivia Kent Jul 2013
Wolf!

Laid upon his bed,
Awake,
Hark,
Sound of confusion screeching,
Canines bared,
Salivating,
In divine thought of snaring prey,
For he is in sadistic need,
No sadism,
Only burning passion,
In need of resuscitation by nourishment,
Satisfied by the latest lamb who greeted slaughters gate!
By ladylivvi1
© 2013 ladylivvi1 (All rights reserved)
Ottar Feb 2013
Where my heart should be, there is an ache or a pain,
Yes that physical geography, I shrug with vague disdain,
I thought that had turned to stone oh so long ago.

My eyes well with tears, I feel emotions and I am glad,
But it is my fears, that want to stop the drumbeat so bad,
I had hoped for longer to get it right, or left, of centre.

Years became months and they turned to weeks, then days,
For excitement a walk amongst the freaks but the mundane won't go away,
Finally realizing I was the main attraction, the reason they showed up.

Busking my talent, to take risks, to make it rich, to feel alive,
What they threw was pennies, and insults, I barely survived,
But no one threw the one thing I needed most, something real.

An honest healthy heart, that beats a steady sound,
That is strong and fair and built to sincerely care, pound-pound,
Wires are getting crossed, on emotional waves I am tossed.

A short circuit in a bilge pump, thump sputter thump,
Water instead of blood finds a way through my rooted stump,
of a body full of remorse for the course my life has run.

There is no race for which I am fit, I plead no contest,
I would not pass any test, if I was allowed to write my best,
Down so low, found in the bottom of a heel print in the snow.

Yet, I have hope, I have a yearning to throw words down, and
with my voice lift their sounds to echo 'round, breathing air,
forcing sound to get my blood to break past clogs.

Yet, I will write, and live to write another day,
Whether it is by resuscitation, or heart-healthy habits stay
the course, spew the filth, to find a measure of peaceful treasure.

Writing in the moment.


©DWE022013

— The End —